Repentance
[9:106]
And [there are yet] others – [people whose cases are] deferred until God wills to judge them: He will either chastise them or turn again unto them in His mercy – for God is all-knowing, wise.

---

* v.106 : Lit., “deferred unto God’s decree (amr)” – i.e., kept in abeyance in anticipation of their future repentance. As in the preceding four verses, the people referred to here are, in the first instance, the waverers who stayed away from the campaign of Tabūk, and, by implication, all half-hearted believers who confusedly hover between right and wrong: with the difference, however, that whereas the repentant sinners spoken of in verses 102-105 are said to have realized their sinfulness spontaneously, the kind of people referred to in verse 106 have not yet reached the stage of moral self-examination and repentance, with the result that their cases are “deferred” until such a time as their impulses sway them entirely one way or another. From a psychological point of view, it is possible to discern a subtle connection between this verse and 7:46-47.